Britain's Shirley Robertson, Sarah Ayton and Sarah Webb won the first ever Yngling gold medal at an Olympic regatta with one race to spare yesterday.

Robertson, who won the Europe class in Sydney, sealed her second successive gold as the trio secured an unassailable lead with an eighth place in race 10.

The British trio hold a nine-point lead over Denmark's Dorte Jensen, Helle Jespersen and Christine Otzen, who look set to fight it out for silver with the Ukraine crew.

The Yngling, a three-person boat with keel and three sails, replaced the Soling boat in Olympic sailing after the 2000 Sydney Games.

It was Britain's first gold of these Games.

In the women's 470 class, Greece's Sofia Bekatorou and Aimilia Tsoulfa had won the first gold medal of the Olympic regatta yesterday.

The four-time world champions, only 14th in Sydney four years ago, triumphed with a race to spare having dominated throughout the competition on the Saronic Gulf.

"It feels wonderful and I hope all the Greek people feel the same way," Tsoulfa told reporters. "We are really happy to make Greece proud. We have been waiting for this moment."

The Athens-born sailors hugged and kissed as they crossed the finish line in second place in race 10, although the result is still unofficial and subject to protest.

The Greek pair have won five races and placed second in two to leave the rest of the fleet in their wake.

Bekatorou, 26, and Tsoulfa, 31, are only the third Greek champions in Olympic sailing history.

Only windsurfer Nikos Kaklamanakis, the 1996 Atlanta winner, and deposed King Constantine, who won the Dragon class in 1960, have tasted Olympic glory for the proud seafaring nation.

Hosts Greece have now secured three golds at these Games following firsts in diving and judo.